Thursday, July 12, 2012

Announcing The Session #66: The One Beer to Rule Them All

Even though I'm still on vactaion—that's "on holiday" for you UKers—I still have a beery duty to perform. That duty is calling for me to announce the upcoming Session, hosted by yours truly. So here goes:

We all have our favorite brews—even if you say you don't; deep,deep down we all do. From IPAs to Pilsners, Steam Beers to Steinbiers, something out there floats your boat. What if we look that to another level? What if you were to design the perfect brew—a Tolkien-esque One Beer to Rule Them All. The perfect beer for you, personally. Would it be hoppy and dark or strong and light? Is it augmented with exotic ingredients or traditionally crafted? Would your One Beer be a historic recreation or something never before dreamt of? The sky is the limit on this one. If you need to travel back in time to brew at Belgian farm during the 1870s, go right ahead—just say hi to Doc Brown and the Delorean for me. Maybe you'll need to mount a expedition to the treacherous Amazonian rain forest to bring back some chicha, to spike your brew with; or perhaps, you'll just dust off that old Brown Ale homebrew recipe, tweak it a bit, and call it an evening.

I'd suspect that most of you out there probably have a good understanding about the brewing process—but if you don't, no sweat, just wing it. This exercise isn't about making sure you've checked all the right boxes for the BJCP or some homebrew competition. This Session is all about imagining the possibilities—no matter how ridiculous! Feel free to create a recipe, right down to the aplha acid in your hops or conjure up a review just like you'd do for any other beer. However you want to come at this, it's your ultimate beer, your One Beer to Rule Them All!

One small caveat, however, you do need to name your concoction—no imaginary super beer would be complete without some glorified moniker to seal the proverbial deal!

Feel free to leave a note in the comment section when you've posted your contribution—have fun, think big, and I look forward to reading what you come up with for August third!

Thanks for hosting. It certainly got the cogs whirring a little! As you'll see I agree with the earlier comment from James in that the diversity of beer makes it difficult, if not impossible, to select a single example that stands above all others. You can read my attempt at responding to this here: http://othertonales.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/the-session-66-the-one-beer-to-rule-them-all/